Selective Mutism in the Context of Migration

Selective mutism (SM) – what is that?

It is a consistent failure of the child to speak in at least one situation, while speaking normally in others. This situation causes significant interference with educational, occupational, or communicative functioning. Studies have shown that migrant children suffer from the condition at least three times more often than the native population.

In the following paragraphs I will try to shed more light on occurrence of selective mutism in migrant children. Migrant children who are quiet, are often being considered simply as not familiar with the language enough. Nevertheless, learning a second language truly takes the average child a long time.

While one of the most pervasive myths about second language acquisition in children is, that they learn a second language easily and automatically, the reality many times turns out to be quite the opposite. Second language acquisition is a complex process which involves many cognitive and social strategies in order to move from the nonverbal, so called silent period in learning new language, to one in which children can communicate.

The typical progression of the new language acquisition begins with silence, followed by repeating words and beginning the process of practicing words in the second language quietly, until finally “going public” with the new language. Meaning that the child is able to speak out loud in front of the others. Consequently it might often be unclear, whether the child is still in the nonverbal period, the one in which children realize, that their home language is not understood at school.

Although children experiencing the normal nonverbal period progress through the phases described above, the selectively mute ones, "get stuck" in the first three phases.

There are certain circumstances in which SM may be suspected in a child learning a second language. Most importantly for parents, teachers and professionals is to pay close attention to the children who are not only silent, but present various anxiety symptoms as well.

Last but not least, an early SM diagnosis is important. Firstly, because language minority children could have fewer opportunities to be diagnosed in their developmental trajectory. Secondly, because SM can hinder social functioning, second language acquisition, and educational achievements. Finally, SM presents additional instructional challenges which should be addressed as soon as possible.